How’s life? No really… how’s life? Job sucks? Blog getting no traffic? No time for the things and people you love? Sorry to hear that. Hey… do you have about an hour to watch a video?

Have you read these two books? No? Watch this video and then go to Amazon and order these two books. I especially enjoyed The 4-Hour Work Week but mostly because it’s a great read for putting one’s head back on personal values and an integrated life and off wasting time and looking forward to retirement. He advocates living retirement today by altering how you live and the choices you make.

For the past couple weeks California has been under a cloud of smoke, literally. Here in the Sacramento area we’ve been more of less choking on it and the fires are relatively far away. The photo above is looking over my house toward the sunset. Normally you’d expect the sun to be orange or red as it sets in the west but it looks like this all day.

Blade Runner is one of my all time favorite science fiction films. If you’ve seen it you know that it takes place in a futuristic Los Angeles where the skies are dark all day long, presumably from the pollution that’s built up over the years. Looking out my windows for the past few weeks and seeing the orange glow casting on the floor makes me wonder if this is what we have to look forward too if we don’t change our CO2 producing ways.

I don’t mean to get all gloomy on you, just sharing out a disturbing thought. It definitely makes me think settling down closer to the coast might make a bit more sense. Although our favorite part of the California coast, the Mendocino coast, is also on fire right now too. And all this came from lightening strikes on dry forests.

Yesterday Pelosi mentioned in an interview with CBS that hearings may be held to impeach Bush and Cheney. This is a bit of a surprising change or tune. Here’s what Pelosi said:

“This is a Judiciary Committee matter, and I believe we will see some attention being paid to it by the Judiciary Committee… Not necessarily taking up the articles of impeachment because that would have to be approved on the floor, but to have some hearings on the subject.”

It occurred to me that there might be a simple psychological explanation for what’s been happening in Washington D.C. and in the minds of our representatives there. Maybe they are just trying to noodle over how to solve an impossible and de-thrown some very dangerous men. Men who stand in leadership of the most powerful military in the world. In fact I wonder if fears like those congress had back when Nixon was put on the hot seat are also cropping up for our congress. Fears that the fire power in the middle east will be ordered into new territories.

I know the popular belief is that our elected representatives are just a bunch of self-serving bastards putting their political parties and jobs in front of doing the right thing. But just for a moment lets assume they are just trying to deal with their own grief for getting America into this war and letting these men rule like Kings. The Kübler-Ross grief cycle would explain a lot about where we are today.

Kübler-Ross Grief Cycle

Stage One – Denial

At first the notion that the leaders of our great nation were blatantly lying to us must have sounded crazy. Tricking the country into war? No no that could never happen. No one is that evil? Right?

Stage Two – Anger

Then some people began to figure it out and make noise about it. This must have gotten a lot of other people pissed off that someone would actually utter the words impeachment. The initial feelings of betrayal in each of them must have also cause some feelings of anger.

Stage Three – Bargaining

Then the deal making must have begun. Kucinich’s pestering must have been the catalyst for hallway conversations. Others must have been thinking the same thing but fearful that unless they had a majority vote the effort to de-thrown Bush and Cheney would fail.

Stage Four – Depression

Alas… what to do? what to do? We only have six more months of this guy. Can’t we wait it out? Maybe we should impeach them? Maybe we should just test the water and see what the polls say?

Stage Five – Acceptance

Pelosi is testing the water now. It appears she is on the verge of acceptance and once they get a majority of people coming out of the denial/depression closet we should be hearing that the impeachment hearings are under way.

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Kudos to Kucinich and Wexler!!! You guys are the only two I’d like to see in office after the next election. All the rest should be replaced by someone new as far as I’m concerned. Wouldn’t that be interesting? A completely new government put into place at one single election. Hmmmmm….

Watch this video from TED. Do you know TED? TED is an annual conference where the most amazing thinkers in the world get together and talk about issues and solutions. They share ideas. Now all of us can see what they’re talking about through short videos.

It’s a video of Clay Shirky (in 2005) explaining how closed groups and companies miss out on the benefits looser networks get everyday. He demonstrates how open communities work and how big corporations and government can benefit from their simple pen model.

I’m not sure why it still amazes me that the strongest only help the weaker when it’s profitable. For example… if our country wasn’t spread so thin militarily and locked in so closely with the oil barrons and sheiks we could probably actually do something like stop the chaos and devastation in little places like Darfur.

“On July 31, 2007, the U.N. Security Council authorized 19,000 additional peacekeepers to help stop the violence in Darfur.

One year later, barely 2,000 have arrived, and those that have arrived lack the equipment they need to protect themselves, let alone Darfuri civilians. Just yesterday, at least seven peacekeepers were killed in Darfur in an attack most likely orchestrated by the government of Sudan.

The Save Darfur Coalition is circulating a petition to the leaders of the five most critical voices on the U.N. Security Council to demand that they stop dragging their feet. I’ve already signed. You can too by clicking below.

A Security Council resolution is useless without concrete action from the U.N. and the leaders of the nations who lead it. It is outrageous that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – China, Russia, France, the U.K., and the U.S. – cannot produce the political will, a few hundred trucks, or even just 24 helicopters to end the brutal genocide.

This is a failure of will, plain and simple. The world promised Darfur protection but has failed to deliver it.

Since January alone, 190,000 Darfuris have been displaced and driven from their homes. How many more deaths and displaced people will it take before the world community provides real security?

Help me send these world leaders a strong message: stop the foot-dragging and keep your moral obligation to bring peace and security to Darfur. Click the link below to send your message today.